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Large‐scale structure of Saturn's E‐ring
Author(s) -
Horányi Mihály,
Juhász Antal,
Morfill Gregor E.
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2007gl032726
Subject(s) - enceladus , titan (rocket family) , saturn , rings of saturn , magnetosphere , physics , astrobiology , polar , magnetosphere of saturn , ring (chemistry) , astronomy , radius , geology , planet , magnetopause , magnetic field , chemistry , organic chemistry , quantum mechanics , computer security , computer science
Geysers on the recently discovered, geologically active south‐polar region of the moon Enceladus are now recognized as the dominant source of material in Saturn's E ring. The ring was traditionally thought to span the region between 3 to 8 R S , where R S is the radius of Saturn. However, new in situ dust measurements indicate that the density of small grains might continuously extend far beyond these boundaries, and the E ring could reach even beyond the orbit of Titan (20.3 R S ). We report on the modeling results of the long‐term evolution of dust particles comprising the E ring to show that grains from Enceladus could indeed reach the outskirts of Saturn's magnetosphere.